The present invention is directed to an illuminated player tracking card for use with a lottery or gaming apparatus, which could be either an individual gaming apparatus or a gaming system having a plurality of gaming apparatuses.
A gaming apparatus allows a customer of a casino or other facility to play one or more games, such as poker, blackjack, slots, keno, and bingo. A customer typically approaches a gaming unit, and selects a desired game from the games offered on the gaming unit. Upon selection of the desired game, that game appears on the gaming unit, at which time the customer is allowed to play.
During play, the customer places a bet and proceeds with the selected game. For example, where the customer is playing slots, a lever may be pulled to spin the reels. The reels then stop on various symbols, which determines the customer's payout for that spin, after which the customer may place another wager and proceed as discussed above. Where the customer has selected to play blackjack or poker, the player may hit a “deal card” button to deal out the cards for the respective card game. The customer may alter his wager during the particular hand based on which cards are dealt, and in some card games, replace cards, or continue to request cards. After all replacements and/or requests are made, a payout is determined, and the player may continue by placing another wager and playing a new hand.
When a player uses the lottery or gaming apparatus, it is advantageous for personnel of the casino or other facility to be able to observe the status of the gaming apparatus, the status of the game that is being played by the player, and perhaps obtain information about the player. It is advantageous to obtain this information by viewing a pattern of illumination of a plurality of lights. It is further advantageous to use the illumination of the lights to attract players to a particular gaming apparatus. Previous attempts to accomplish this have resulted in locating the lights so that they are viewed directly from the gaming apparatus. This approach however has proven to have limited success in attracting and encouraging players to use particular gaming apparatuses.